Black, White, Other (Funderburg) was the first book I read when I embarked on my “from black to biracial” journey. Caucasia (Senna) was the second. They couldn’t be more different, one being fiction the other non, nor could they have had a more positive influence in guiding me through the paradigm shift.

I love what they had to say about “biracial” in the age of Obama:

Senna stressed that she in no way trying to compete with the president before noting, “I’ve been thinking about this long before Obama.”

Asked if it bothers her that Barack Obama identifies as black, Senna answered that it did not. “He’s very open about his multiracial background. I identify as black. It’s a very mixed-race experience.”

Funderburg agreed, saying that the influence of his biracial heritage emerged prominently during the speech Obama made in Philadelphia last year in the aftermath of the controversy surrounding his former minister the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

“I have the great, great fortune of having loving connections to the white and black sides of my families,” Funderburg said. “I’ve had from birth the chance to understand how identity forms on different levels, to understand more than one side in every story.”